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Sorry if my review will sound like it was written by a zombie but that’s exactly my mental state right now now, being in a drug-induced haze (Benadryl kicking in).

Anyway… When I first saw the poster for Warm Bodies, my first thought was that it would be yet another fanfic-turned-published-novel and that it was bound to ruin zombies the way Twilight ruined vampires. I did a quick search and found out that it was written by a man, Isaac Marion. Months later, a geeky friend Chrissie (whose literary tastes I trust because she was a member of De La Salle University’s Malate back when she was in college) talked about how she was riveted by the author’s writing style. Hm. Ok. So I told myself that the movie couldn’t be that bad if the source material was good.

Still. I could not get rid of my misgivings. I mean, a zombie and a human fall in love. Vampires and werewolves I could take. They’re supposed to be frozen in time or at least resemble human beings. Plus, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (the original vampire tale) was bonded at some point with human Mina Harker. But aren’t zombies on their way to decomposition? Imagine the stench! And the premise is that this zombie falls in love with the girl because he absorbs the memory of her boyfriend after eating his brains. How the heck would a normal girl get over that?

See this is where it gets brilliant: Warm Bodies is hilarious. It does not wax poetic and it forces you to suspend your disbelief because…well, it didn’t seem to take itself seriously. I couldn’t decide if it was laughing at me while I was laughing at it or it was laughing at itself.

I definitely went through lots of mixed emotions even though it was dripping with sarcasm. I would also find myself scared, excited, apprehensive etc. Definitely not the snooze-fest that I have come to expect from sparkly vampires.

I can’t really say more without spoiling it. Just that this really was a huge surprise for me. I’m going to go and grab the book now!